Jupiter Sharts

Jupiter Sharts (1830-18 July 1863) was a Private in the 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment of the US Army during the American Civil War.

Biography
Jupiter Sharts was born into slavery in South Carolina in 1830, and he was known for being a skilled sharpshooter due to his experiences with squirrel hunting. He managed to escape from his plantation and flee to the North, volunteering in the 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment in November 1862 during the American Civil War. The illiterate but friendly Sharts befriended the bookish soldier Thomas Searles, who promised to teach him how to read. Sharts displayed his musketry skills for Major Cabot Forbes before Colonel Robert Gould Shaw forced him to rapidly reload his musket while shooting his pistol in the air, intimidating Sharts into taking his position as a soldier more seriously. Sharts served in the Charleston campaign in South Carolina during the war in 1863, and he was killed by canister shot at the Second Battle of Fort Wagner.